Typical asphalt manufactures produce hundreds of tons of asphalt each hour. In certain instances, manufacturers will ship hundreds of tons of “out of specification” material resulting in premature failure of the final roads. An unacceptable alternative to shipping the “out of specification” material is to dump the material at great financial lost to the manufacturer.
A minimal number of tests are performed to ensure the road and building materials are properly mixed. Typically, only a few pounds of asphalt are tested when hundreds of tons of asphalt are manufactured every hour. After a road is installed, a spot test is randomly performed using a nuclear density test or other spot test that requires significant time per test and is unreliable. In particular, a nuclear test is performed by a licensed technician and requires a calibration of the equipment to a sample section of road. However, there is no way to know if the sample road is within specification. Every road or different sections of roads require a new master. Further, the testing materials used in the nuclear test are dangerous. The current non-nuclear spot testing procedures are also calibrated using part of the non-tested road under the assumption that the calibration part is manufactured correctly.
Occasionally the Department of Transportation (DOT) utilizes a sampling technique where a pie-plate type container is positioned on the road wherein the container is filled, compacted, removed, and saved for later examining at the DOT's laboratory. This sampling technique often takes months to determine if the asphalt is within an acceptable mix ratio. As a result of the tested sample, roads having unacceptable mix ratios or segregation must be removed at great expense.
Additionally, a core test involves removing a cylinder shaped specimen directly from the road under test. The specimen must be returned to the laboratory where liquid asphalt is burned off. Subsequently, each of the individual components are separated and weighed. The core test is very time consuming, environment unfriendly, and requires a direct damage to the road.
None of the conventional tests produce real time results. Specifically, the spot test requires several seconds and relies on calibration to a section of road which is not clearly within specification. The core test and pie-plate test require days or weeks to evaluate. When hundreds of tons of asphalt are manufactured each hour any of these tests are too little and too late. Further, there is currently no real time testing during shipment or transport when heavy stones are known to separate due to the vibration nature of transporting.
There is no present technology which comprehensively inspects the manufacturing of a road. The primary reason for failed roads is the segregation. There are no absolute technologies which monitor mixing liquid asphalt with polymer, aggregate with binder, shipping of binder, shipping of asphalt concrete, compaction of road during installation, monitoring of cracks in roads, or laboratory specimen monitoring. No conventional technology provides the correlation of every manufacturing process. There is no current technology which monitors in real-time all previously mentioned manufacturing processes. Currently, segregation is not detected until after a road is compacted and manufactured.
It would be desirable to have a system and a method for monitoring a building material, wherein the system and the method are comprehensive throughout the manufacturing and application processes and provide a real time data feedback relating to the physical characteristics of the building material.